There’s a new Asian restaurant at Morongo Casino Resort and Spa and we got an early look inside

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Gold-engraved Mozen chopsticks accompany a duck dish garnished with cilantro at Mozen, Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa’s new restaurant. The restaurant is expected to open before the end of the month. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Several large metal woks sit atop of burners at Morongo Casino Resort & Spa’s new restaurant, Mozen, ready to be vessels for stir-fries, soups and noodle dishes. The woks are not from any nearby culinary store, but have actually been sourced from Hong Kong for Chef Kuei Lai and his team to use.

“We’ve really gone out of our way to make sure the food coming out of the kitchen is as authentic as possible,” said Craig Gilbert, managing partner of Drive This! Entertainment, the company that will operate the restaurant.

Mozen, which is expected to be fully operational by early next week, will be the third new eatery — after Good Times Cafe and Pink Coffee — the Cabazon resort has opened this year as part of a larger expansion and renovation project. It will offer a wide range of Asian cuisine from China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan. It will open in the space formerly occupied by now shuttered restaurant Cafe Serrano.

The restaurant is divided into two sections: fast casual and full service.

The former faces the casino floor and opened last week. Guests order at the counter from a menu that includes banh mi, pot stickers, pastries, boba drinks and teas and pick up their food for dining on-site or to go. There’s also a bar area where guests can order specialty drinks.

On the other side of some black and gold-painted partitions is a full service dining room expected to open next week. There, guests will be able to order wok-fired dishes, noodles, soups, seafood and more. There’s also space for private events and parties partitioned from the main dining room.

Mozen is a new restaurant at Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa that will focus on a variety of Asian cuisines. Although the setting is upscale, owners want the experience to be inclusionary and for guests to feel comfortable at the open, airy Cabazon spot. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Woks, imported from China, fire up vegetables and duck at Morongo Casino’s new Asian restaurant, Mozen. The restaurant is expected to open before the end of the month. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Gold-engraved Mozen chopsticks accompany a duck dish garnished with cilantro at Mozen, Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa’s new restaurant. The restaurant is expected to open before the end of the month. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Large glass lanterns illuminate the front portion of Mozen, Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa’s new restaurant, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. The restaurant is expected to open before the end of October. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Drive This! Entertainment Partners Michael Frey, left, and Craig Gilbert at Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa’s new restaurant, Mozen, on Oct. 1, 2019. The Cabazon restaurant is expected to open before the end of October. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Chef Kuei Lai meticulously garnishes stir-fried vegetables and duck at Morongo Casino’s new upscale Asian Kitchen, Mozen, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. Mozen is one of several restaurants to open in an expansion project that started in January. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Gold partitions open up to private dining at Mozen. The Morongo Casino’s upscale Asian restaurant offers several different seating areas, a bar, a tea station and a rotating slideshow of Asian scenes. It’s slated to open before the end of October. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

General Manager Michael Nguyen, center, teaches Mozen staff the art of making tea on Oct. 1, 2019. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Glass lanterns will greet guests as they enter Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa’s new restaurant, Mozen. The restaurant will open before the end of October. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

The fast casual side will be open from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. and the main dining room will open from 5-11 p.m. There will likely be some sort of extended hours on weekends, Gilbert said.

The food

Gilbert said despite the restaurant’s opulent look — which includes large, glowing lanterns, dark woods and elegant wall treatments — Mozen is meant to be casual, not fine dining.

“We want to be inclusionary and not exclusionary by any means,” he said. “It’s a beautiful room and we understand that, but we want everyone to feel welcome here.”

Some of the items that will be served in the restaurant’s dining room include noodles such as seafood udon, chicken lo mein and Hong Kong-style combination beef chow fun; sushi platters (with combo rolls or sashimi); salads such as beef bulgogi salad or mango teriyaki chicken salad; and seafood dishes such as jumbo shrimp with cashew nuts.

On a tentative menu, entree prices ranged between $10 and $42, though there were a couple items in the $50 range.

Mozen Executive Chef Kuei Hua Lai was brought in to helm the restaurant after working as a chef in both Taiwan and Hong Kong. He’ll provide his expertise in crafting some of the wok fired regional Chinese dishes.

The design

A row of glowing lanterns is one of the first things that greet guests as they make their way through the front side of the restaurant. Also highly visible is a large screen behind the bar area showing images of Asian countrysides and cities.

In the main dining room, guests will see patterned dividers, murals and color coordinated blue and orange place settings with chopsticks engraved with the restaurant’s name. The restaurant was designed by Kenneth Ussenko, the same designer behind Morongo’s 26th-floor Drum Room, Good Times Cafe and Pink Coffee.

Ussenko said the look of the restaurant was meant to evoke design elements from multiple Asian countries.

“Throughout the spaces there’s little influences from everywhere,” Ussenko said. “Like the big prints, it’s almost like Japanese tapestry and the lanterns here, there’s a place in Vietnam called Hoi An where there are all these hundreds of stores of lantern makers and so this is my interpretation with this whole row of lanterns that welcome you at this restaurant.”

Ussenko also devised the concepts for multiple murals in the restaurant. One, in mostly pink and orange hues, shows a peacock in some wildflowers. Another, in the private dining area, shows several blue-colored koi fish frozen in place.

“He created the art piece to be koi fish in a frozen pond and somebody kind of wipes their hand over the frozen ice to reveal the fish beneath the surface,” Gilbert said.

Ussenko said he wanted to combine a lot of design elements and patterns to create the illusion of movement and to contrast with the designs at Pink Coffee and Good Times Cafe, which he said are much more controlled.

“This one I wanted the walls to shake, everything to move,” Ussenko said.

Alex Groves writes about casinos for the entertainment team at Southern California News Group. He started his first full-time gig as a breaking news reporter for The Press-Enterprise in 2015 but has also written stories on arts programs at local high schools, dining and events. In his free time, Alex enjoys hiking and traveling. A craft beer enthusiast, Alex likes to bring back an IPA as a souvenir from every new place he travels.

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